Understanding The Affordable Care Act

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HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) - You don't have to agree with the president's healthcare law, but as Alabama Media Group Reporter Lee Roop points out, you do need to know, "This law is going to be the biggest change in American healthcare since Medicare came in 1965."

That's why our newspartners at The Huntsville Times/AL.com have launched a series of special reports answering key questions. There are plenty to answer, like how will new healthcare exchanges work?

Roop notes, "The exchanges will all be on the Internet. You'll go to them and answer a series of questions about yourself, your family, and your income. You'll be sort of guided toward policies that might be right for you."

You can find more information on those exchanges from the government at healthcare.gov.

This website offers insight into the information that is most directly relevant to you.

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So far a lot has been made of the politics of this law - but it reaches so much farther than Washington. Roop adds, "It's going to affect, eventually, all of us - maybe in the rates we pay in insurance, maybe in the ability of our loved ones and our family to get insurance if they don't have it now."

And that's why headlines are full of the law right now.

As Roop says, "Whether you support the law or not, it's really important to understand it and see how it's going to begin to shape everything."